GreyGrey Designs

Monday, May 6, 2013

{My Parties} Jenna's Red Carpet Hollywood Birthday Party

I am rolling out the red carpet today for my latest party!

Miss Jenna turned 10 this weekend in Hollywood style!

When Jenna's mom contacted me about doing her birthday in this theme, I immediately loved it!

Plus, I hardly ever do girl parties, so I always jump at the chance to do a glamorous party for a cute little girl!

My inspiration was Old Hollywood, with a touch of glitter!

I wanted Jenna and her girlfriends to feel like they were really going to an awards show. The beautiful Memphis Country Club was the setting for the party and since we had such a stunning setting, dripping with chandeliers, it really gave the whole party a glamorous feel.

For the entry, we literally rolled out the red carpet for the girls with rope and stanchions and these fabulous star chandeliers that I ordered from Shindigz.

We had DJ Funn come out and play some Beiber and One Direction for the girls too!

They adored him and had so much fun.

One of the challenging aspects of this party was coming up with table centerpieces. I wanted to do some tall vases with feathers, but the club doesn't allow feathers of any kind. So, I decided to DIY my own palm trees. I have done this project before at my Jungle Book party, but this time I varied it up a little bit.

This is a simple project that anyone could do. I used leftover wrapping paper rolls that I had in my house and glued them to small wooden disks that you can get at any craft store. Then, I tore off small pieces of some gold paper and glued it to the cardboard roll with hot glue, in a palm tree bark pattern. For the palm leaves, I used foil fringe that you can get at any party store. I threaded 18 gauge floral wire through the top and bent them and glued them into place at the top of the roll!

For the savory buffet, Jenna picked some Sliders and Mini Pizzas from the club's menu.

This sweets buffet was really fun for me to style.

I started with a really cool oversized vinyl sticker that I had personalized at Shindigz with Jenna's full name.

I pinned it into my foam backboard and then made some red curtains to dress it up.

The gold shag linen that I rented from Classic Party Rentals really gave the table good texture.

What's a Red Carpet party without some Red Carpet Ropes and Golden Globe Gumballs?

The fabulous printables are from my very favorite graphic designers, the ever so wonderful Piggy Bank Parties.

These were the absolute hit of the party--Love and Sugar Kisses' chocolate covered Oreos.

Theses were GONE. The girls were fascinated with them!

I displayed some of them in a tall votive holder that I got at Pier 1 a hundred years ago.

I loved how they stood up!

The letters for the buffet were painted with gold spray paint and then gold glitter spray paint (thanks Mariah at Giggles Galore for telling me about that)

The cake was made by Mad Lily Cakery. Isn't it adorable?
The girls were fascinated with the fact that it was 100% edible!

It was so cute that I wanted it for MY birthday!

And you HAVE to have popcorn at a movie party, right? This candied popcorn was from Oh Nuts. And the best part is that it CAME in those gold containers! Well, thank you Oh Nuts!

Jenna's mom is a longtime customer of my favorite cookie bakery, Whimsy Cookie Co, so she and I collaborated on the design of these cookies for Jenna. Their cookies are always beautiful and delicious.

I displayed them on this black bedazzled charger that I got at Michael's.

We had the fabulous Amy and Fairys and Frogs come out to paint the kids' faces. She did an amazing job with the girls. Since the girls dressed in fabulous red carpet attire, Amy painted them matching designs on their faces and arms. You can see her entire work from the party HERE. It's amazing!

I had the girls play "Pass the Popcorn" with plastic spoons in their mouths. Let's just say there was a lot of popcorn on the floor when they finished! Ha!

And of course, a fashion show!

Jenna made me laugh so much when she took the mic at the end of the fashion show and said..."The award for best birthday party ever goes to....ME!"

For favors, I ordered these gold Chinese takeout boxes from Oriental Trading and attached an adorable tag from Piggy Bank Parties.

Happy Birthday Jenna!!!

Vendors:

Cake: Mad Lily Cakery

Cookies: Whimsy Cookie Co.

Backdrop Vinyl Decal and assorted Decor: Shindigz and Oriental Trading

Candy: Oh Nuts

Printables: Piggy Bank Parties

Fondant Oreos: Love and Sugar Kisses

Rentals: Classic Party Rentals

DJ: DJ Funn

Face Painter: Fairys and Frogs

Venue: Memphis Country Club

Styling and Photography: GreyGrey Designs

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

{My Parties} Greyson's LIVE at FIVE Anchorman Party

Good evening and welcome to my LIVE at FIVE party!

When I was brainstorming my big guy's 5th birthday, I really wanted to play on the word "five." So, after tossing around several ideas with my sister and her hubs, he suggested Live at Five. Since we are all huge fans of Anchorman, I immediately jumped on this! I wanted to give it a retro spin, and harken back to the classic news anchors of days past.
And, since we call him Grey, even though his name is Greyson, the four letters were a perfect fit for the call letters of a news station.

One of the first people I contacted when I was first planning this party was Piggy Bank Parties. I knew that they could absolutely kill it when it came to the printables. And, of course, they did not disappoint. Do sent over this absolutely amazing invitation using the call letters logo! I got so many texts and emails about how cute this invitation was!

If you follow my parties for my boys, you know that I always have to do a big-impact piece for my entryway. This year, I made the call letters of the "news station" out of a large piece of cardboard and some paint. I printed the letters out from my computer and mod-podged them onto the signs. I spray painted the five with silver paint to make it reflect.

Do you love the tv banner?

Do also sent over some printable papers, including this retro TV. So, I printed five copies out and put his picture on each of his birthdays inside them.

My idea for the table was for it to be a news desk. So, I ordered this corrugated cardboard from Shindigz and rolled it around the table to make it look solid. Then, I customized this awesome Brooklyn Bridge backdrop from Shindigz with a logo to make it look like a news studio backdrop. This is probably my favorite part of the entire party.

For the food, I wanted some unique serving pieces, so I bought these video tapes at Goodwill for $1 a piece and glued them all together to make stands. Then, I printed out our station call letters and taped them to the videos. A simple clear plate on top and you've got yourself a stand! Some of the food items were Chic-Fil-A wraps ("That's a Wrap!") and Nuggets ("Sound Bites").

And what's the news without coffee and doughnuts? I found this coffee cup planter at Lowe's months ago and used it to display the doughnuts on skewers.

The phenomenal cake is from Mad Lily Cakery. I gasped when I saw it! The airbrushed woodgrain on the sides was my favorite part. It was the perfect retro touch! And guests couldn't believe it was the cake! And, it was delicious!

I found this adorable little movie camera light on Shindigz and could not resist.

I was brainstorming ideas for food for the party and came up with these microphone meatballs! They were breadsticks with meatballs which I served with marinara sauce.

The cute little suit, tie, and cookies were from Whimsy Cookie Co. I love their cookies so much and I have been responsible for eating several of these for the past few days! I love how they turned out!

My sister helped me make this "news ticker" for the top of the news desk. We used the little tv test patterns from Piggy Bank Parties and some bulletin board letters and mod-podge to make this perfect little ticker!

I searched high and low for a toy helicopter to add to the party table. I found this little guy at Wal-Mart and peeled all the stickers off and made my own little sticker with our call letters. Now Greyson loves playing with it!

For the favor table, I created a weather forecast for the backdrop. I handpainted this and it took several hours, but it was totally worth it. Several people asked me if this was the actual forecast for the week. And trust me, this weather outlook is pretty typical for Memphis!

I knew I wanted Piggy Bank Parties to do their microphone favor box for me, because it is awesome. And I asked them to add a little "box" around it for the call letters. They turned out amazing! And they even did a little tie tag for me too! The detail on this mic is so awesome! I filled them with dum-dums for the kiddos.

I printed out the test pattern tv and taped it to a black cardboard box to make a 3-D tv for the mics to stand on.

My sweet boy broke his leg last week and was in the hospital over the weekend, so he spent his birthday party in a cast and a wheelchair. But, being the champ he is, he enjoyed his party anyway!

And, because I am a total freak for the details, I had to make a photo-op for the guests. These are two of my favorite boys, posing as a news anchor. I hand-painted this little guy too.

This is some kind of miracle--us all smiling and looking at the camera!

Greyson's birthday shirt is by my extremely talented friend, Mollie at Personally Stitched. She blew my mind this time by replicating the call letters! She is so great!